“And no cheating,” Quain called. “Make sure you count to a hundred before seeking.”

“Don’t forget to shout out the ‘Ready or not’ at the end,” Loren said.

Half of me felt foolish, the other half reverted to my childhood days—when no other worries sullied the pure thrill of the hunt. I embraced my childish side, pushing away the dull adult sensibilities. I counted faster. Long-forgotten strategies surfaced in my mind. Too bad all the…boys—couldn’t call them men when playing this game—wore gray, black or dark brown clothing. It made sense for blending in with the winter landscape, but it gave them an advantage for now.

“Ready or not, here I come.” I spun around, hoping to catch a flash of movement as one of the boys dashed to a hiding spot. Nothing. Not even a branch swayed. I listened to the forest for a moment. Off to my right, an unnatural off-note sounded.

Despite the cold air, I removed my cloak. I wore my black clothes, but I had taken the time to smear gray clay I had found at the bottom of a shallow pool in the caves over sections of my shirt and pants, equalizing the playing field.

Instead of going right, I walked with the special—what to call it?—gait straight for a while before veering right, hoping to come in behind the unnatural spot. I stopped often to make sure my quarry hadn’t moved. As I drew closer, I noted a dense little thicket that would be perfect to hide behind. I stood nearby and waited. Sure enough, Flea slipped out, searching for another spot. I followed.

Once Flea found a place to hide, I crept up on him and pounced. His yell of surprise echoed throughout the forest.

Sputtering with indignation, he said, “You didn’t have to scare me!”

I feigned innocence. “I thought you heard me.”

“Yeah, right. You have that evil gleam in your eyes. Have you’ve been pretending to be noisy all this time?”

“No. But you don’t know everything about me. Like the fact that when I was younger, no one could hide from me. I was Queen Seeker.” I had grown up in a small city, but a few of the strategies for seeking someone in an urban environment worked out here, as well.

Flea grumbled, but I shooed him back to the cave. “Hurry up so I can find the rest.”

“You won’t find Kerrick,” he said.

I waited until the forest settled, then honed in on another off-key area. This time I caught Quain.

“At least I’m not the first one,” he said. He wore a gray wool cap over his bald head. “You’re a fast learner, but you won’t find Kerrick.”

If Quain and Flea had been trying to discourage me, they failed. I continued to stop and listen. But when I encountered the perfect hiding spot—a dried creek bed hidden under the branches of a fallen tree, I knew one of the boys wouldn’t be able to resist this place. I squirmed below the thickest part of the branches and pressed against the bank. My years on the run hadn’t been a total waste. A couple of the skills I had learned aided me today. The biggest one was patience.

After twenty or thirty minutes, Loren slid under the tree.

“Ah, hell,” he said. “I should have known this spot was too good to be true.”

Three down, two to go. I made half-circle sweeps farther and farther from the cave and, on my tenth pass, I sensed a strangeness. Boulders jutted from the ground. A few were in mounds while others stood alone. As my gaze traveled over the area, something seemed wrong. Not the color, not the size, but one shape kept snagging my attention. One large boulder had soft lines and a symmetry to it.

When I touched the boulder, it chuckled. Belen peeked out from under his cloak.

“With my size, I didn’t have a lot of choices,” he said.

“You blended in,” I said. “But one thing I did learn as a healer’s apprentice was to be observant. A rash could be just an ordinary rash, but if it had blurry edges, it was a sign of a more serious illness.”

“I knew you were smart, so I’m not surprised you found the four of us. But—”

“I won’t find Kerrick. Everyone seems to delight in telling me that.”

“Don’t take it the wrong way,” Belen, ever the peacemaker, said. “His ability to disappear in the forest is impressive. We’re just proud of him.”

As Belen returned to the cave, I wondered if they’d still be proud of him if they knew about his magic.

I considered the problem. Kerrick wouldn’t make any noise, and the forest wouldn’t give him away with out-of-tune notes. He would be camouflaged, but not by magic. That wouldn’t be fair unless he used it unconsciously, keeping contact with the forest just in case. I might be able to feel it and follow it to him.

Except I only felt it when we touched. Skin to skin. I searched my memories. Something Kerrick had done…when he knew about the mercs… An image formed in my mind of him crouched down, touching the ground with his hand.

I pressed my palm to the earth. A slight tingle rolled along my fingers. Was it going in any certain direction? Concentrating, I thought it might be coming from my left. Which didn’t help since I couldn’t crawl because he’d hear me. I needed to stay on my feet. Of course!

Sitting down, I pulled my boots and socks off. I stood, cringing as my soles touched the cold ground. After my skin adapted to the temperature, I felt that tingle pointing to the left. I’d have to find him before my feet froze and lost all sensation.

The vibrations intensified as I walked. I covered a good bit of ground before the tingle stopped. Which probably meant Kerrick had seen me with bare feet, figured out what I was doing and ceased using magic, or my feet were numb.

Kerrick must be close. I turned in a circle, scanning the forest before remembering he wouldn’t stand out. Frustration swelled, but I shoved it down. What were my options? I couldn’t use sight, touch or sound. What’s left? Taste and smell.

Not about to taste the dirt, I sniffed the air. The cold damp scent of earth with a slight rotten taint filled my nose. With no other options, I returned to the cave and did sweeps again, but instead of listening, I drew in deep lungfuls of air. Ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty, twenty-three sweeps later, I caught a hint of spring sunshine. Like a hunting dog, I followed it, sucking in so much air I was dizzy.

The scent increased and I focused all my energy into staying with it. It led me to a huge briar full of thorns. I remembered when Kerrick had rolled me right through the underbrush. But then he had used his magic. Of course, he could have pulled power to get inside, then stopped. Except his scent wasn’t coming from the patch, but seemed to surround me. Odd.

I circled the briar a few times, puzzling over the inconsistency. No brilliant solution came to mind. I’d lost him. That one word—lost—jolted me. Yegor the bull had lost his horns. I scanned the trees above my head.

Kerrick lounged on a limb. His amused half smile grew into a full-blown grin. “What took you so long?”

“Well, I napped a couple hours this afternoon so the boys would believe they were hard to find.”

“Ah, yes, the fragile male ego. Always good to keep it intact.” Kerrick swung down from the limb and landed beside me without making a sound. “So what gave me away? My magic?”

“At first, but you stopped using it.”

“Once I realized I’d connected to the forest, I had to stop. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been fair.”

“Uh-huh. Keep repeating that, and maybe one of us will eventually believe you.” Now that the game had ended, I relaxed and woke to other sensations. The cold air assaulted my exposed skin. My hands and feet were numb. I retraced my steps to where I’d left my boots.

Kerrick followed but kept quiet as I pulled on my wool socks. I shivered. My cloak was back at the cave. Of course Kerrick had gone the farthest.

We headed back “home.”

After a few minutes, he said, “You didn’t answer my question. How did you find me?”